At 01:49 PM 10/11/2009, Geoffrey Layton wrote:
In this week’s edition of The New
Yorker, there is an article that includes these two quotes about
Larry Summers: “According to a friend of Summers’s, Harvard had
wanted . . . ” and later, “According to [Joe Blow], a former
student of Summers’s . . . ”
Two questions arise from these
quotes. First involves the formation of the possessive with a
proper name ending in "s." The writer adds “…’s” to Summers’s
name in the possessive case - but shouldn't the possessive be Summers' -
or didn't it used to be?
Second, why is the possessive
necessary at all? Why not “friend of Summers” or “former student of
Summers"? The apostrophe would be necessary if it were, for
example, Layton's friend or Layton's student - but shouldn't it be
"friend of Layton" not "friend of Layton's"?
The New Yorker has always
been kind of the God of Grammar, Usage and Mechanics. Are they
slipping, or am I?
Geoff Layton
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